BillTracker

Bill: HB 2338 — 2018

Supports the deployment of clean transportation fuel technologies through a carefully designed program that reduces the carbon intensity of fuel used in the state, in order to: (1) Reduce levels of conventional air pollutants from diesel and gasoline that are harmful to public health; (2) Reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation fuels, which are the state's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions; and (3) Create jobs and spur economic development based on innovative clean fuel technologies. Requires the joint legislative audit and review committee to analyze, by December 1, 2026, the impacts of the initial five years of clean fuels program implementation.

SUMMARY OF 1ST SUBSTITUTE COMPARED TO ORIGINAL BILL
The substitute bill amends the statement addressing the authority of the Department of Ecology (ECY) to adopt rules under the Clean Air Act prior to the bill's effective date, to instead declare that the bill's requirement that the ECY adopt rules to limit transportation fuel carbon intensity is not an acknowledgement, denial, or limitation of any Clean Air Act authority to regulate the carbon intensity of transportation fuels that may have existed prior to the bill's effective date. The calculation of credits under the Clean Fuels Program, and the determination of which fuels must register and participate in the Clean Fuels Program, are based on a measurement of the fuel's carbon intensity relative to the carbon intensity standard adopted by the ECY rule, rather than relative to the 2017 carbon intensity baseline.

EFFECT OF CHANGES MADE BY 2ND SUBSTITUTE (Transportation)
(1) Requires the department of ecology to consult with electric utilities in adopting requirements governing the expenditure of revenues that utilities generate by participating in the clean fuels program. (2) Specifies that the rules adopted by the department of ecology must "establish a standard that reduces" the carbon intensity of transportation fuel to ten percent below 2017 levels by 2028, rather than referring the rules as "limiting" the carbon intensity of fuels to those levels. (3) Requires the Department of Ecology's life cycle analysis of transportation fuel emissions to neutrally consider the fuels' political jurisdiction of origin, and forbids the Department from discriminating against fuels on the basis of having originated outside of Washington. (4) Declares that the Department of Ecology's rules are not prohibited from including or assessing the emissions from transporting a fuel as part of determining the carbon intensity of the transportation fuel.